ROTARY Club members, who stretched their hands across the sea to help tsunami survivors in Sri Lanka get their lives back together, have been presented with a thank you gift from the islanders.
At the last meeting of the Astley Club, which raised the cash to get the fishing fleet back on the water and to build a psychiatric ward to deal with the aftermath of the Boxing Day tragedy, Gnanaka Jayasinghe, of the Colombo Central Club, handed over a boxed commemorative plaque of the island.
He also presented two Sri Lankan cricket shirts to Dave Groves, a past Rotarian and a junior coach at Astley and Tyldesley Cricket Club, which could bring in more cash for the regeneration fund.
Dave has since been to Lancashire Cricket Club and has obtained Murali Muralitharan’s signature on the shirts which he will auction off shortly. Proceeds will be divided between the Tsunami Appeal and his junior teams.
Two of Rotary’s top award winners, Paul Harris Fellows and neighbours Trevor Barton and Gnanaka, known locally as Jay, synchronized their charity efforts after the killer wave struck.
Jay, who runs a fashion warehouse in Sri Lanka, sent back first hand reports of the horrors and now thanks to the close relationship of the two Rotarians their clubs have been working in harmony to bring some order back to the victims' lives - and twinning could be on the cards which will help further funding and visits.
Trevor is to visit the island in June to see the results of the fund raising so far along with company director Tony Roberts who is organising a golf day.
Ken Bates, who is co-ordinating the project, is also organizing a golf day and Gordon Burrows, a Parkinson’s Disease sufferer, who has visited Sri Lanka is doing a parachute jump this month.
And Trevor has written to Emirates Airline to see if they will increase the baggage allowance so they can take out cricket gear for the youngsters.
(Story courtesy of Leigh Tyldesley and Atherton Journal)